April 16th, 2008

Superb customer service is key to make loyal advocates out of your customers.

In this issue:
1. My Father-in-Law made me do it!
2. CustomerServicePoint.com Info

My Father-in-Law made me do it!

It's one of the biggest bestsellers in the history of customer service books. And here I am admitting that I had never read it until last week! So why now?

My Father-in-law made me.

Now, my father-in-law is a gentle man. While he's a strong leader when it's needed, he will never force anyone into doing anything they don't like to do. But in this case, he made me read it. He didn't say a word. Or lift a finger. He wasn't even in the room!

Confused? I'll explain a bit later. But first, about the book.

"Deliver Knock Your Socks Off Service (Knock your socks off service series)" (4th edition). Originally written by Kristin Anderson & Ron Zemke, but after Mr. Zemke's untimely death in 2004, the book was overhauled in this 4th edition by Zemke's company, Performance Research Associates.

This book is mainly targeted to people who are at the front, in the trenches, working their buds off trying to help customers. To many, the customer service rep IS the company. That makes sense. The CSR may be the only person the customer comes in contact with, and if the CSR is helpful and friendly, that makes the company helpful and friendly as well.

But if the CSR is grumpy, ... I don't need to spell it out right?

So, what can you do, as THE face of the company, to knock off your customer's socks? This book shows you in an easy-to-read style, laced with real-life examples and funny cartoons, what you can do to wow your customer.

By being Reliable. Responsive. Reassuring. Empathic. And by offering Tangible solutions.
Fail to deliver on any of these aspects, the author states that you put your customer's satisfaction at risk. And I agree.

Anyone working in customer support will take away so many great and easy to apply tips from this book, I can really recommend that you read it!

Anyway, I'm glad my father-in-law made me read this book.

So what's up with that, you say? He wasn't even in the room?

Ok, here's an end to the mystery.

My father-in-law, now retired, was a great manager in a production company for many years, and I often talk to him about issues that I face in my daily work life. He's seen so much in his 40+ years, that he always has some good advice for me to handle things with care.

The best advice he gave me, one that I live by every day, is this:

Give trust, and you'll get it double in return
KEES KAMIES

(Ok, I admit I have been burned by this attitude a few times, but the positive that has come from this outweighs the negative by more than 2 to 1. But I digress...)

This quote has been on our customer service quotes page for years (rightfully so).

Imagine my surprise when I was flipping through this book at the store, and saw this name, my Father-in-law's name, Kees Kamies, in this book. Right there, at chapter 11, I saw the quote I just shared by you. I was honored-by-proxy, to see it in print. You know, the "chapter quote", in my mind, was always reserved for "famous people". And now, Kees Kamies, a great man that I've met by marrying his great daughter, is also a bit famous.

I think you can imagine that there was no chance that I wouldn't get this book and not read it. I simply had to get it!

And now the book is on it's way to Emmen (Holland), where a man lives that is now more famous than he was yesterday!

At your service,

Erwin.

CustomerServicePoint.com Info

Thanks for understanding.

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(C) 2007, Erwin & Marjan Steneker You may use original articles in Customer Servings, if you attach the following bio (including the link): Erwin & Marjan Steneker are passionate about good customer service, check out their website at http://www.customerservicepoint.com/